The Morphling
by rasz1
Summary: Both Dire and Radiant forces are made aware that The Morphling, a powerful entity is about to hit the planet in the form of a comet. A race begins to get to its inmense power first and to get them to join their side, potentially changing the tides of war. First part of a planned trilogy.
1. Chapter 1

The freezing cold of the cave seemed almost supernatural. The gravely silence could have made the hearts of many heroes shiver and stop, frightened for the danger that could lurk at any corner. The darkness was intense, and the torches just barely managed to light up the immediate way before the blackness swallowed the road.

Nothing is scarier than the unknown, and no one knew absolutely nothing of this place.

Still, once you've been to hell and back, some ice cave in the middle of nowhere doesn't really impresses you. However, Lion pressed on carefully, taking special care for a fatal slip, or a natural trap that could get him unprepared.

"Are you sure this being is here, Lion?"

"Would you doubt the master, Axe?"

Lion rarely referred to his allies by their names. He was once just, honorable, a strong defender of the light and all that was good, but his greed was stronger. He had left behind his origins, his compassion, and his roots to search forever power, power overwhelming. He had lost all he held dear, but little did he care, for his memory of his life before he made the pact with the demon and was then betrayed was vague, once he went to hell itself to take bitter revenge on the beast that abandoned him. Now he was a grostesque monster, vaguely resembling his orcish origins, his left hand a fair warning of not crossing him, if his entire pressence somehow had managed to not prepare his enemies.

"Of course not. I am not sure what we're looking for, though"

"Not many people do. There are many creatures which are completely alien to our nature. People don't need to know about them. People don't want to know about them."

"I'd have preferred if this particular one had taken refuge somewhere else warmed. This forsaken ice cave is awful."

Lion sneered and looked at his partner, raising his torch. There was an inherent elitism amongst magic users to look down on their most brutish, less intelligent comrades, but Mogul Khan was someone to respect. He was relentless, fearless, and remorseless. An enormous beacon of destruction, who would stop at nothing to do his Master's bidding. He still did not think he was more than an ally, a trusted one, and irritated him to no end that he used his real name instead of his title, despite his constant reminders and his reluctance to call him anything else than Axe.

"You have no idea what we are looking for, am I right?"

"An apparition? A ghost? Some sort of creature that's more ancient than this world?"

"This is Kaldr we're talking about. This is not just 'some creature', Axe. Kaldr has existed since the beginnings of time. Millions of years he has witnessed, waiting patiently to rise and unleash his grip of ice upon this existence... and negate everything."

Axe, though used to these kind of descriptions coming from Lion, was still unnerved at the thought. He had long since stopped fearing death... but 'negating everything' seemed quite drastic as a mean to win a war.

"Are you... scared, Axe?"

Axe quickly shook those thoughts. There was a reason why he preferred to be in the battlefield, drenched in the blood of his enemies, and hunting his foes, leading his armies to a decisive strike upon the Tree of Mana, to end a war that had gone on for far too long. Limitless resources to both sides had meant an exhausting war of attrition, and so there needed to be a silver stake, something that could pull on the odds towards them. That something could prove to be here, in this cave.

To Hell with consequences, even if it had to mean babysitting this orcish abomination in this frozen cave.

"Of course not. "

"I hoped so, because I'd like to direct your attention to the temperature..."

It had dropped a few degrees, but, most importantly, the atmosphere seemed much more dense than seconds ago. It was obviously not a natural cave, but he never expected this to happen. The cold was biting on his skin, and his reaction was to pull the torch close to him, to try and get some heat from the fire. Lion, however, seemed completely oblivious to the sudden lack of light. When Axe realized that his torch had gone off, he also realized that the light hadn't dimmed. He rose his sight to meet what they had been looking for.

It could take awhile to make sense of its body, but Kaldr was an impressive sight to behold, shining from the power that he radiated, feeding from the heat, creating entire continents of ice to hold his physical manifestation on this plane of existence. He resembled a group of stalagmites, joined together as to form the upper part of a man, a featureless face, and its arms floated disjointed from its shoulders. Around it, pieces of apparent ice moved slowly around him. This apparition seemed to take no notice from its two visitors, and, undisturbed, sat motionless, floating perfectly in the center of the cave.

The two dire warriors approached the creature, slowly but firmly, trying to caught its attention. Finally, not known for his patience, Axe broke the silence.

"Kaldr?"

Neither the Demon Witch or the Axe could have been prepared to the thunderous, impossible deep voice that broke from the entire cave. Both warriors fell to their knees, overtaken by the power of the ancient apparition directing its virtual omniscience at two mortals.

"You come here with a purpose. And I do have knowledge that purpose."

Heavily breathing and coughing, Lion rose to his feet quickly to meet his gaze. The apparition wasn't looking at them, it was just staring into space. How do you refer to a being older than creation itself without risking incurring in its wrath?

"There is no need for introduction, Demon Witch. You have come here to try to convince me to help you defeat these Radiant forces and put an end to the Tree of life. And I will comply, as it suits my purposes."

LiIon stood, mouth open, without any clue how to act. Still shaken by the forces of the entity, he nodded.

"I was prepared for your omniscience, ancient. Forgive my ignorance, but how shall we expect you to act?"

Kaldr moved its body closer, and Lion could feel his bones freeze. His left hand, his demonic hand,however, felt strong and clash of temperatures was really uncomfortable, and he struggled to keep his face straight, and to hide his pain.

"Do not expect anything."

As Lion and Mogul Khan left the cave dumbfounded, they didn't utter a word. The Axe felt as if their life energy had been drained by the experience, but he couldn't bring himself to ask the Witch if it was the case. Finally, the rays of daylight somewhat heated their bodies and morale, and Lion slowly spoke "Let's meet up with the rest. We have much work to do."

"Do you think Kaldr will arrive soon?"

"He will know when to appear. Don't try to understand, his rationale is way too alien for us to understand. We better just hope he will arrive."

Mogul watched over his shoulder, and felt a sudden need for violence. As the Demon Witch prepared the enchantment to go back to their outpost, he muttered "There will be pain", and the pair disappeared from sight.


	2. Chapter 2

Lanaya didn't expected to spend her life in battle. She was born a scientist, an scholar, itching for knowledge and wisdom, yet the world needed her to be a warrior. And she was a fine one.

As she ran towards the enemies, arrows and fireballs approached her. With some heavy manipulation of the psionic energy that surrounded her, a circular, almost invisible shield covered her, as the projectiles smashed against it and missed their target. There was a little sadistic pleasure in watching the panic that engulfed the wretched dire foot troops that were about to die. Her fists were wrapped in psionic blades, and she jumped at the small group of demons, arching her body backwards to maximize the power and energy collected from the veil, and flung a massive burst of energy at her targets. The first one caught it right on its face, shrieking at the last second at the fear of dying, and the blast parted in several ways, hitting every single one of them, almost killing them all in a single hit.

Only one survived, a frail looking lowly magician, the kind that was used as ranged support by the Dire legions. The blast hit him and cut an enormous slash in his stomach, dropping him to his knees as he tried desperately to keep his innards from flowing out.

Lanaya approached him. She knew - or rather, suspected - the Dire commander could see from the eyes of every single creature on its army, so she pulled the little man's head up to meet him eye to eye.

"I will find you soon enough and what this creature is suffering won't even be close to what I plan to do to you"

Violently, she dropped the man down, and he desperately reached his staff and tried to quickly gather some energy to hit the Templar Assaasin, but she flung a burst of psionic energy at the hands of the mage, prying the staff off his hands, and stomped the man on his throath.

"Very brave of you. Very stupid as well."

Rhasta stood silent as he watched the Templar Assassin step on the mook's neck and send a bolt down his face, messily killing him. He was somewhat concerned as the elf was becoming more callous every day, but still, he wasn't there to lecture her on mercy. She was a perfect killer, a beautifully modeled figure of death, and it was a waste to know that behind that lied one of the greatest minds he had known. Lanaya had laid down, crouching in the middle of the massacre, perhaps reflecting on what she had done, so the Shadow Shaman rose and with a flick of his arms, the two staves he carried lit on fire, and approached her.

Then she vanished out of sight.

"Very funny of you, Lanaya. Please come out, we need to talk."

The strong, thick arabic accent of the shaman was irritating for most of the people, but Lanaya was used to it. He often acted as her support during most recon missions, and was wise beyond his years. She could as well describe him as repulsive, but she had never seen his true face, though his body was a sickly mix of muscularity and malnutrition. Physically, he wasn't particulary able, but he was an apt wielder of magic, and a frighteningly smart tactician.

"You don't really have to look at me to speak"

"I would rather look at you."

"Wouldn't you? Pervert."

That reminded him why she was so complicated to get along with. She was mischievous and spoiled, and the war had warped that, to the point she apparently couldn't help herself to act like, well, a jerk. Finally, and much to his relief, she appeared.

"What is it, Rhasta?"

The Shadow Shaman put out his staves, now that he was sure the place was secured, and sat down on a log. He started to speak slowly, as he always did, to make sure she understood everything.

"Lanaya, we have a mission to go to. Ezalor was very agitated today, and he insisted the tips of the war have been thrown against us. He couldn't make out why, but he felt as if the balance of power had been broken. He then gave me this. Take a look."

Rhasta handed Lanaya a scroll. She opened it to take a look, but she couldn't really understand the language or glyphs engraved within. She could make out though a figure that looked familiar.

"A water elemental? Is this all about water elementals? I thought the elementals refused to take part in the war."

"That... isn't a water elemental. Have you heard of the Morphling?"

Her eyes widened "I've read enough legends to know that it doesn't exist"

"And you are right, Lanaya... " and Rhasta smiled "... until now..."

There was a moment of silence, and Rhasta started explaining.

"The Morphling is this sentient meteor that wanders through the universe. You know that part. Morphling is just a nickname, as it is supposed to be an ever changing life form of sorts. This creature is real, Lanaya, and it is about to strike Silverglade. We need to find it and recruit it before the Dire legion finds it. It would be disastrous. And with that power, we could finally end this war and stop all this nonsense bloodshed."

"And we could have... revenge" she said, spitefully.

"You could, Lanaya. We're not all into this for that. I don't want my life to end in the hands of these demons. I got a lot more to live for."

Lanaya looked at him, slightly annoyed. She respected him, but it always made her mad that her allies would wave away her reasons for battle as selfish. They couldn't understand, they did not have their houses burned to the ground, they didn't lost the only thing that made them be real.

She always remembered that day vividly and painfully: the screams, the flames engulfing the library of knowledge she had grown to call home. The corpses and the wounded, tears rolling down their faces as they realized they weren't coming back. The day she took on arms and left the place she knew to join the ranks of the Radiant army, to drive away and exterminate the menace. For her, it wasn't about defense, it was about eradicating the Dire legion.

Still, she knew it was pointless to argue.

"That's irrelevant. What is your point then, Shaman?"

Rhasta smiled and replied "Why, we're gonna find it. The Crystal Maiden and the Stone Giant will join us. The time might be just near to turn around the tides of darkness, Lanaya. I need you to focus."

The Templar Assassin turned and started walking while saying loudly "I always do, Shadow Shaman." Rhasta couldn't see, but she was smiling.


	3. Chapter 3

The sound of the high heels clicking against the marble floor could just mean one thing. She had returned from her report duties, and was free to do as she please. The walk was slow, sure, but above all, loud. Deliberately, to announce her arrival. There was little flair for sudden appearance, and she had a theatrical soul, at best, and a taste for anticipated suffering at worse.

She had kept him alive for 48 hours. He probably wouldn't resist much longer before he died, but it was the best bet she had for finding the crash site and trying to mediate with the elemental to join the legion. But, as weak as he was physically, he refused to be broken. The man, a notable wizard working with the Radiant, who was cherished and admired days ago was now a naked man, drenched in blood, kneeling in the floor, chained by the neck to the ceiling, and hands and feet cuffed together. Two sickly glowing daggers stuck from his legs and shoulders, his back and chest marked with slashes, and his face swollen from the beating.

It wasn't a secret that the Succubus had thoroughly abused him the last two days, and Akasha had a talent for efficient torture in many ways. While most of the Dire legion lieutenants had some joy to find from the suffering of others, even some of them found her punishments a bit too extreme. Still, no one would dare call her out on it.

"Look up, worm."

She stood before the kneeling man and he slowly looked up,as much as his failing strength would allow him. She was beautiful, long flowing black hair, perfectly sculpted face, and her marble purple skin seemed to invite the touch... but he was terrified. The pain he had endured the past two days was beyond anything he was prepared to, but he couldn't help but obey a command he could not hear, just feel, as his eardrums had been pierced by her screams.

"You got another day to try. You tell me what I need, and I will leave you to die at last. You keep being a bad slave, and you got another 24 hours of constant pain."

She then raised her right and sent a swift slash towards his chest. The man double in pain. She then teleported behind him, and slashed him again in his back. Had arched his back and tried to scream, but she used her sharp heel to step on the wound, forcing him down. She then used a dagger to pierce his shoulder, and started moving it deliberately and slowly, to maximize the pain caused.

He decided to submit. He opened his mouth, but he suddenly felt his hair yanked on and an enormous pain on his right leg. The Succubus smiled gleefully as she pushed the dagger further with her boot and said softly "Speak quickly, worm".

Finally a shriek was let out "SILVERGLADE! SILVERGLADE! PLEASEI BEG OF YOU MAKE IT STOP!".

Of course she didn't stop. Instead, she pushed further until the knife had gone through skin, flesh and bone and reached his calves, until it was the heel of her boot piercing him. At some point his voice simply blew off, and all that was left of it was a hoarse whisper in a desperate plea for mercy.

"As much as I enjoy watching you revel in pain, suffering and torture, Akasha, we don't really have time for this show"

If it was one voice she immediately turned around to, it was his. Nessaj was standing just behind her, his frightening armor on, leaning casually against a wall. The enormous Fundamental who was one of the driving forces, was calling for her, his horned helmet hiding his true intent. It always made her wonder what he hid behind it, for all she could see from the inside was the bright glowing out of his eyes, which let an unstable current of matter flow upwards out of it.

"Silverglade is a pretty silly clue, Nessaj. We need more information."

"No we don't. We don't need to find the exact place. We need to find who are going to be there to receive it."

"So it is coming right now?"

"Yes" The Fundamental walked towards her "a contingent elite litenauts from the Radiant army have been dispatched to find it. Find them, and they should guide you right into the place. It's a pretty simple plan, Akasha."

"How about the apparition?"

"The Demon Witch and the Axe have been successful in contacting it and it appeared to be willing to cooperate. They've had a... rather bad reaction to the interaction, but they will be fine to join you. The Faceless Void also expressed an interest, so you four will be our welcoming party. I must ask of you to lead them. They are a difficult to control group."

"Of course, my lord." She smiled. There was little she enjoyed more than a little discipline.

"That'd be all, Akasha. Meet your companions outside later today." Short and to the point. He turned around to leave the dungeon, but was stopped by Akasha's sudden voice.

"Sir... how about the other Fundamentals?"

He smiled and started walking again before sentencing "I don't need another Fundamental bringing nothing to the table. I got enough with Ezalor jerking me around for centuries."

* * *

"Enigma, where are you?"

Nessaj grew restless. This conflict have been going on for so long, he wonder what would happen if one side finally defeated the other. Chaos had a way to make things work, but what would happen if they finally destroyed the Radiant Stone? A long time ago, he was banking on Enigma to pick up the pieces, but the fundamental never appeared, and never contacted him again. Would the improved power of the Direstone be enough to hold the whole army together until a new goal was found? Would they ever escape?

"The Enigma will appear in due time, Chaos Knight."

Nessaj didn't even turned around to meet his visitor. "So you decided to show up, Kaldr."

"It fits my purposes"

"Let me guess, these are some purposes I wouldn't understand"

"The end of the universe begins here, Chaos Knight. The only forces that could keep me from fulfilling the prophecy of icy ending are now allied with the Radiant army. You can understand that."

Nessaj turned around and faced the Ancient Apparition, somewhat irritated "What does make you think I will let you simply destroy creation?"

"You cannot stop me, Chaos Knight, but a word of advice, don't send them unassisted. The Templar Assassin has more tricks up her sleeve than you know" hissed, and dissapeared from sight, leaving Nessaj alone with his thoughts. Dealing with these kind of characters was always annoying to say the least, and he had been dealing with them for thousands of years. He thought to himself that was part of the entire deal, and sat down to meditate. Waiting for an answer from Akasha would be the best choice, instead of trying to solve an impossibly long riddle in the form of Kalrd's mere existence.


	4. Chapter 4

They called him Tiny, but he had grown since the Stone Wars begun. He was now a mountain of sentient rocks that ran amok the battlefield, trampling enemies and raising stone avalanches at its foes, throwing bodies around without any second thoughts. The Stone Giant was an unstoppable force in the battlefield,who relied on surprise to catch single enemies, coming out of rock beds where it could hide perfectly, but once the surprise was broken, it didn't really mattered as its enormous strength allowed him to deal damage enough to break any defenses.

As of now, however, as its good-nature attitude allowed, as it was outside of battle a tame, easy going creature, Tiny served as walking furnitude, as Lanaya and Rylai sat on its shoulders, while the monster easily walked alongside Rhasta. It wobbled from side to side like an enormous donkey, and seemed to take pleasure in the attention both women showed him, occasionally joking about the situation.

"Sometimes I feel like you're the biggest pet I've ever had, Tiny!" said laughing Rylai, the Crystal Maiden. The giant just cheerfully growled and moved again from side to side. Rylai was the always cool Crystal Maiden, a powerful ice magician who never lost her good humour get the best of her. She had bonded particularly well with the giant, as the cold aura she always carried around was of no consequence to the rock-based creature, and they both got along just fine. Lanaya didn't really seem to pay any attention to the situation.

"How long until we get there, Rhasta?"

"A couple hours at most, I presume. I just wish we get there on time."

The moon shone brightly in the unusually clear night, and this area was rarely used as a battlefield, as the deep and dense woods made it not particularly ideal for mass troops mobilization. Silverglade was, even in the middle of a war that was decimating the small planet, an oasis in the middle of Hell, and the wildlife was plentiful. The gargantuan trees provided for enough cover to protect the animals the natives still used as game, and the predators could hunt in peace without having to run from the artilleries and fire that was to be found everywhere. The Dire Legions have long tried to burn the sanctuary to the ground, but they were driven away by armies that would later join the Radiant Army, the Ursine and the Dryads, led by who would later become one of the most trusted generals and a beacon of leadership for those who followed the light, the Nature Prophet.

The road was gentle and quiet. Lanaya was growing restless. There was no reason why the Chaos Knight couldn't have figured out their plans and the arrival of the comet. She had told the Shadow Shaman, but he seemed too confident they were on time.

Suddenly the Shaman stopped dead on his tracks and Tiny stopped.

A line of spikes ran across the ground in their general direction with violent speed. It missed the Shaman but the Stone Giant took it with full force, blowing the two girls out of its shoulders with great force. All too agile to lose their ground, both girls gracefully landed on their feet and prepared for battle, as Tiny tried to regain its ground.

Lanaya produced her psionic blades while Rylai took out her white staff and the forest illuminated with the fires from Rhasta's torches. For a few seconds, there was an deadly silence in the glade.

"Stand your ground, my friends..." the ghoulish voice of the Shaman was the only sound to be heard as muscles tensed and reflexes sharpened.

A flash of lightning struck as a figure moved with extreme velocity towards the group and clashed violently against the instantly raised psionic veil of the Templar Assassin. The power of the clash was enough to push Rylai away from the two figures, and she finally managed to realize that the unknown attacker was Darkterror, the Faceless Void, a monster from another dimension, a powerful enemy who had a limited ability to distort the flux of time. The beast was holding its mace against the the shield, forcing Lanaya to use all of her mental power to keep it at bay. Finally, she managed to muster a second to force enough power to her hands, and fling a burst of energy against the monster, pushing him back, but not doing enough damage to seriously injure it.

Darkterror wouldn't attack alone, Rylai though, so she prepared and ran towards Tiny, who had finally managed to get up again and had uprooted a tree trunk as a makeshift weapon, and stuck back to back with the giant, and prepared to cast an icy spell to assist the Templar. Another line of spikes was however creeping right at them, and they both had to jump to escape it.

A enormous, all too familiar growl was growing nearer at every second. Tiny managed to catch a glimpse of a red figure, clad in píeces of armor, running at full speed at the pair. It braced for impact, determined to protect its friend. As it raised its arms, he finally recognized the enemy as the terrible Axe, a foe it had faced before and knew was more than a match for its stone fists.

However, the Axe was stopped firmly on his tracks as a bright yellow net formed around him. The Shaman had catched him and held him captive.

"You goddamn shaman, let go of me and I will tear your body to pieces!" frustrated, Mogul Khan shouted

"Now that's a very good reason not to let you go!" Rhasta smirked before crying in pain, feeling the sharp burn of a dagger buried on his left shoulder. He was then forced to let the Axe go, who dropped down clumsily to the ground. A red flash appeared next to Rhasta, showing the fearsome figure of the Queen of Pain, who just as instantly produced and sent several knife against Rhasta, who barely managed to evade them rolling on his side. He suddenly felt a strong, yet soft arm, holding him, and he was instantly then in between Tiny's enormous legs, as the four Radiant litenuauts prepared for battle. It was Lanaya, who had used her trusty Blink Dagger, an artifact crafted specially for her, in order to teleport via a mental command short distances, first used in the ill fated assasination attempt on a very important target, the Invoker, and enormously powerful and seemingly ageless immortal wizard, which failed miserably and left her bitter at her failure.

Rhasta rose up, and the four warriors assumed their positions. Axe got up, while Darkterror moved quickly to Akasha's side, hunched over, and finally, Lion, the Demon Witch, appeared out of the shadows, to join his companions.

Akasha reached out to Darkterror's head, and caressed it absent-mindedly, and spoke "It's been awhile, Shadow Shaman. And it's always nice to see you three, as well. You probably already know why are we here."

"You won't stop us." Rhasta spat between gritted teeth, frustrated and angry. This wasn't the best time to have a quick battle. If the Morphling reached the planet and landed without anyone to command him, it would run riot, and would probably turn into another scourge to the innocent, as Roshan, the wandering giant, was before he was sealed into his lair.

Akasha just laughed, and gently patted on the Faceless Void's head, who suddenly turned into a train of silhuetes charging at the Radiant. Howeve, Tiny reacted on time, and buried its hands into the ground, raising a wall of stones and rocks at Darkterror, who was stunned for a moment, more than enough for Lanaya to jump at him and kick him in the face with a roundhouse, dropping him to the ground, and out of the way for Rylai to concentrate and focus her energies into freezing the air around Akasha, Lion and Mogul Khan. Tiny then ran at them, but Akasha used her most feared power, he supersonic screams,which made the rock giant tumble and lose its momentum. With Lanaya and Darkterror gone, the six characters were in for a match of wits.

* * *

Lanaya felt she had the upper hand, as her psionic blades could cover more ground and Darkterror had to catch her off guard for her not to manipulate her psionic veil to protect herself from his strikes, but to beat him she had to find him: and he was not easy to catch. He moved with absurd speed around the forest, and only seemed visible he he was fruitlessly striking her veil. Thanks to her training, she was able to manipulate the shield almost instantly, as a reflex, but it would eventually tire her out, and she had no idea how long could Darkterror, a creature which could manipulate time, hold on to this siege.

"I could be at this forever. Time is a friend of mine, Templar Assassin."

The voice came from her own head. She had felt as if he had stopped just next to her ear to speak. If he was toying with her, there would be Hell to pay.

"Do you despair, Templar Assassin, knowing you can't defeat... time?"

Lanaya sent a powerful psionic blast in the general direction she randomly supposed he could be heading towards. It was a missed shot, and almost a fatal mistake when Darkterror appeared just in front of her and struck her midside, barely managed to focus the shield in that general direction. The Faceless Void just stood there in front of her, and she sent a second blast at the monster, though it just passed through him. It was just an illusion, a fraction of a second imprinted in her eyes, and she realized her mistake when she felt a solid hit on her back, where the blind monster had struck, and sent her to the ground, rolling quickly to avoid a second hit to the face.

Darkterror followed her and quickly sent a downward strike with his mace, but Lanaya managed to stop the weapon with her own his opponent strength, the Faceless Void tried to use his own weight to push the weapon down, but Lanaya just smiled as her hands began to be engulfed in a bright pink flame, and she held him with her legs, and with she forced him to roll on his side, kneeling over him, and used her right hand to push his weapon away, and in the same movement, she punched him in the face, releasing the blast just as the impact landed. The monster screamed in pain as she punched him again, repeating the strategy, but in the lust of battle, Lanaya forgot her opponents strength, and, in a second, she realized time stopped, as her second hit, which she was sure had landed, was invisibly dodged by Darkterror, who then scored a powerful strike in her head with the mace, sending her away.

She stood stunned for a second, and felt a powerful hit on her stomach, which threw her against a tree. Instinctively, she raised her shield, saving her from a lethal final strike, as the eyeless abomination faced her closely. In a fit of rage, Darkterror struck again, which weakened the tree she was pinned to, and caused it to collapse, Lanaya ducking away just in time to avoid being crushed. She realized she might be physically stronger and have a nearly unbreakable defense, but Darkterror was fast beyond her greatest limits, and another mistake like that could cost her life.

The Faceless Terror had been claimed to be able to stop time for a limited time, allowing him to pound away unpunished, legends telling he moved so fast he could decimate armies in seconds. Lanaya had no idea how to react. Her usual battle tactic was to aggressively attack into the enemy, using her shield to do away with any counters, but this was probably impossible against Darkterror, who stood in battle stance a few meters from her. She was sure he was desperate, but his face never seemed to change from that devilish grimace. Suddenly, she realized that there was a chance.

She dropped her shield.

Darkterror stood for a few seconds, unsure of the behaviour of his adversary. Still, he pressed on, taking a couple steps before stopping. He then charged.

Lanaya moved forward, arms open, and bracing for impact. She couldn't see him, but she felt the painful strike to her left side, and knew it was her opening.

With all the speed she could muster, she grabbed the hand of her opponent. Darkterror could manipulate time, but he couldn't escape if she got a hold of him. She then sent a powerful kick to his head, and with the same momentum, she got a lock with her foot, forcing him down to the ground, arm outstretched as she held on to it, trapped between her hands and tight. With a strong movement, she snapped it, an ungodly scream from the monster was heard as he felt the bone for his shoulder break, and the limp limb hit the floor. She then skillfully jumped behind him, and raised his head.

"You don't mess with a Templar, foul abomination."

The monster kneeling, she rose her hand, focusing her psionic veil to it, and struck him in the center of his back, causing pieces of skin, bone and whatever was inside Darkterror to fly from his chest. There was a dry gasp of pain coming from the monster, and she let him fall to the ground.

She kicked him in the head, and step on it for a second, to make sure he was dead. If he wasn't, he was very good at faking it.

* * *

Oblivious to the battle between the two, the scuffle between the resting lieutenants raged on. The Crystal Maiden had been neutralized, hit by a powerful dark magic blast from Lion, but not before trapping Mogul Khan to a frozen rock, and Rhasta had been badly wounded by the Queen of Pain, but Tiny stood gigantic, protecting its two allies. Fortunately, Lanaya teleported just in front of them, shield risen and hands prepared.

Akasha hesitated. The Faceless Void was her trump card, an unbeaten champion for the Dire, but Lanaya had managed to defeat him. She stood tall, and studied the Templar's status. She was badly hurt, but Darkterror's insistence to use a blunt weapon cost him the battle. She could escape easily, but her companions (underlings, as she liked to call them) would be doubtlessly killed. She then rested her stance.

"Very impressive"

Lanaya's frown softened, and, while her face was covered, they could all tell she was smiling. "It's going to take a lot more than that abomination to defeat me, Queen of Pain"

Using the distraction, from between her feet a column of spikes rose towards the Templar Assassin, who took the brunt of the hit, successfully protecting her fallen comrades, but pushed back towards the wounded, fortunately caught by Tiny's strong hands. Winking at her, Tiny then toss her towards Lion, who was hiding behind Akasha, and she landed feet first on his face, knocking him out. Kicking him out of the way, she walked easily towards Akasha who, for perhaps the first time, watched at her furiously.

"How about that, Queen of Pain? Ready to take your share of the business?"

Lanaya did not wait for an answer, she simply sent a powerful psionic blast into Akasha's face, who disappeared in plain sight, appeared over Rhasta, and, in a second, grabbed him and blinked away against further from the group, holding a dagger against his throat. The Shadow Shaman was in no shape to struggle, and only fruitlessly tried to warn Lanaya to stay away.

The sudden hostage situation, however, wasn't what Lanaya hoped. Akasha, realizing the cliché of the situation, smiled, and screamed "Did you hope I would do this?!", her fabled shrieks making the entire battlefield shake, including the frozen Mogul Khan, who was struggling to get out of his frozen prison, and fell down, cracking the ice.

Rhasta's ears were bleeding and he was clearly in pain. Lanaya had a sudden bad feeling on her chest, and she opened her eyes to see Akasha slitting Rhasta's neck, ear to ear. The Shadow Shaman fell limp to the floor on her feet. She kicked his body away and laughed at Lanaya's incredule eyes, who couldn't believe that had just happened. Boiling in rage, the Templar Assassin and the Stone Giant jumped at Akasha, but a suddenly a shield met them both in the middle of the dash, pushing them both away.

"About time you showed up, Osterion" Akasha said, calmly, walking around the enormous figure that now stood between her and the two remaining standing Radiant heroes.

"That is King Osterion for you, Akasha"


	5. Chapter 5

King Osterion was a long forgotten monarch of a gone civilization, a legendary gigantic swordsman who was a fearless warrior, and stood on the side of goodness. He fought barbaric hordes, demonic legions and was always victorious, the only battle he lost was with death, as he died of old age after a life of glory.

He was now a misguided, proud defender of the Dire legions, his past erased from his memories, and his mind twisted, now just seeking to defeat the Radiant forces in battle to reclaim the glory of his former days, the only thing he remembered from his life. An enormous, solidly build skeleton, armed with a scimitar and a shield, he stood between Lanaya and Tiny.

The Templar Assassin was still in shock. The Shadow Shaman's corpse laid below the heel of the Queen of Pain, who watched at her temptingly, as if she was a prey Akasha had chosen to predate. Fighting back the urge to cry, she diverted her attention to the mountain of unholy bones that Osterion was. She had not meet him before, but she had her of him, and unstoppable opponent.

Tiny, not aware of her pain, took the initative, uprooting a tree and swinging it towards the giant skeleton. The lack of finesse on its attack was evident, as Osterion easily stopped the hit with his shield, and struck it in the face with his scimitar, sending pieces of rock flying, the Stone Giant clearly in pain. He followed through with another hit, which Tiny tried to stop with its arm, but the weapon once again struck powerfully, tearing appart more pieces of the stone formation that was Tiny. He finally kicked him in the chest, pushing him down to the floor and slashing at him once again, and focused on the last target, the Templar Assassin.

Lanaya felt defeated. She could try, but there was little she could do against the undead King. Akasha also was getting ready to strike, and the Axe was pulling finally free out of his icy prison. Lion was also coming back to his senses. Rylai was not in any shape to fight, unconscious and badly wounded on the ground, and Tiny was out of it as well, perhaps sharing the final fate of Rhasta.

She raised her shield and braced for impact once again.

She felt a deep, savage voice inside her head.

"You are not alone, Lanaya. Hold on, I'm coming to help you."

An deafening roar was heard all over Silverglade, and the earthquake that was felt suggested an entire army coming into battle. Lion cursed under his breath, and shouted at the other three Dire warriors "This is why we don't come to Silverglade, you fools!".

An enormous, majestic white bear, clad in golden, shiny armor, jumped out of the woods, tackling King Osterion and dropping him down. The beast then tried to slash at Akasha, but the succubus merely blinked away and materialized on top of a tree. He then focused his attacks on to the recovering red warrior, slashing in tireless rage at Mogul Khan, who could barely realize he was being killed by the Ursine Warrior. The Axe fell dead to the floor, and Lion, who had crawled to the ground to escape the animal, found the Templar Assassin in cutting his escape route.

The tide of battle had been changed in a second, and Akasha growled, and hissed "this won't be the last you see of me", and fled the battle, vanishing away from view, leaving the Demon Witch and King Osterion to deal with the two remaining Radiant warriors.

"You take care of the orc, Templar. I'll deal with the skeleton!" growled Uflsaar, the Ursine warrior, the greatest fighter of the forest, as he tackled the skeleton again, dragging him into the deeps of the forest. Lanaya stood watching as the two enormous figures faded into the trees, and turned his attention to the Demon Witch, who was lying in the floor, helpless.

She smiled, and decided there was someone who would pay for her anger.

* * *

Osterion had faced Uflsaar before, and he knew what the bear was capable of. He was fast, terribly strong, and was tremendously skilled in hand to hand combat. Hundreds, maybe thousands of the foot soldiers had been killed by the claws of the Ursine Warrior. Uflsaar was also wildly unpredictable, as he could quickly move around the battlefield without any setback to position himself in the best place to strike quickly. His only advantage was the absolute lack of subtlety the Bear had as he fought.

Under the flurry of slashes, King Osterion tried to block all strikes and send powerful piercing strikes to hope and catch the bear off guard, but it was nearly impossible., as the bear's tactics included constantly changing the angle of the attacks. Finally, the Skeleton King had enough and managed to strike the beast roundly in the face with his shield, and then bury his sword into the beast right shoulder. Uflsaar howled and crashed his paws to the head of the skeleton, breaking apart the helment and throwing him off balance. He pulled the sword away from his shoulder and skillfully threw it at the enemy, who simply dodged out of the way. Osterion, unarmed, had to consider his options.

Not needing any cue to continue the assault, Uflsaar jumped at the skeleton. Osterion, finally finding that opening, conjured a fireball on his hand, and threw it at the bear, hitting him soundly on the chest, and sending the beast against a group of trees, breaking them apart as he landed.

Osterion got up and recovered his weapon "Uflsaar, you know you can't keep me down much longer. I should have burned this entire forest when I had the chance, just so you couldn't hide here anymore. Come on out!"

The deep, frightening voice of the bear was heard all around Osterion "You can't fight nature. It's pointless. The forest would fight back. The forest will defend itself." Uflsaar's voice turned slower and more deliberately "I. Am. The. Forest."

Osterion couldn't react in time to the hit on his back, Uflsaar using all his strenght and both arms to tackle and make a blunt, dry strike on his back, breaking a few bones and forcing the monster to face down the floor. Not giving it the chance to fight back, Uflsaar kept slashing away, breaking bones and taking the structure of the undead king apart.

"YOU CAN'T STOP ME THIS WAY, Uflsaar"

The Ursine Warrior did not listen. He just pounded away, turning the once great monster into a pile of disconnected bones and shards.

"YOU CAN'T ST-" and the shouting died off as Uflsaar crushed the skull. Tired and wounded, Uflsaar rolled to the side, and sat down, trying to regain his strenght. Fighting Osterion had taken a lot of endurance out of him, and, while he counted on the Templar Assassin to deal with the Demon Witch, their mission wasn't over. He was now part of this broken contingent, and finding the Morphling was critical to the war, and to him, to the safety of Silverglade. He took a second look at the pile of bones, and began running towards the other two challengers, not realizing the bones had began to move and re-arm themselves to rebuild the skeletal gladiator.

* * *

Lion tried to run away in vain from the Templar, but Lanaya was physically much more fit than the wounded orc. She was simply toying with him, cutting off his escape attempts. He also knew it was pointless to try to negociate. He had to find a way out.

"Where do you plan to hide, Demon Witch?" asked, sadistically, Lanaya. She was drowning in the need for revenge, and he was going to pay for it.

Using whatever strength he had left, he jumped away from her, and raised yet another line of spikes towards Lanaya, but she swiftly evaded them and raised her shield, just in time to stop a wild blast of dark energy, which hit the shield and then simply dissapeared. Stunned by the sound of the blast, Lanaya stood silent for a few seconds, but then she attacked.

Two waves of psionic energy were flowing towards the Demon Witch, and he had to try very hard not to be hit by them. The Templar Assassin ran at him, flinging more bolts at him, until one of them hit the Witch on his knee, pinning him down in place as he shouted in pain as his leg stopped paying him attention. He fell down gripping the bloody mess that once were his right leg.

"Goddammit you witch! See what you've done!" Lion cried. Lanaya though, simply walked towards him, and kicked him solidly in the face, dropping the Witch down to the floor. Dizzy, Lion could simply stare into space as the figure of the Templar appeared in his field of vision. He grabbed his staff, his only weapon, and began the motions to attack her, but his body was numb and failed to register his movements. He could, however, feel the heel of the boot of Lanaya pressing painfully down his forehead.

He raised his staff, but she kicked his arm away and step on it, denying any sort of comeback. She then lowered herself with her knee over his shoulder, and she formed a psionic blade on her hand. She then looked at him and asked "Do you know that Psionic blades are also used as torture instruments? You see, if the kinetic energy is added, psionic blades are thrown as missile piercing weapons, and great ones at that. But if not, they can be posed within the brain, which causes a slow, painful death as it fries your mind. Geneerally, Templars have no need to do this. But you burned my library. Killed my teachers. And destroyed my life. And now the last thing you see, will be my face and I burn you brain."

Lion could only watch restrained as Lanaya put her hand on his forehead, allowing the blade to penetrate his head, and a he then felt how his head was about to implode, as the acidic burn of the blade twisted his mind. It was a couple minutes of absolute pain, and Lanaya was enjoying it, as the Demon Witch's mind was twisted beyond any repairs.

Uflsaar found a depressingly quiet Lanaya, who by this point was sitting on top of the now vegetable Lion with her hands pressed around his head. He could only wonder what had she done to him, but it was clear it was deserved.

* * *

"Templar?" he called. Lanaya slowly turned her head to face him. She smiled, and nodded. "Dead"

"I knew you could." the bear replied, as he walked towards the remains of Tiny. He knew how close Lanaya was with the Shadow Shaman, so he was a somewhat uncomfortable about the whole deal. The Templar rose up, and got closer to him. She did a reverence and said "Thank you, greatest Ursine Warrior. You saved my life."

He pushed her up and said "I wish I could have saved theirs as well. We need to help Rylai. She's badly hurt."

"You go with her somewhere safe. I will find the Morphling." Lanaya answered convincingly.

However, Uflsaar replied "There is no point splitting now. We barely won this fight. It's safe to assume Akasha is still around, and we don't know if she is alone."

He was right, she thought, as they both tried to find out a way to help had a frightening black mark on her stomach where the bolt hit her. There was no way to know how much internal damage had been done. "Well, but we can't stay here either."

"The Stone Giant will become one again with the earth... but we also cannot leave the Shadow Shaman to rot, Templar." Uflsaar warned.

Lanaya walked towards Rhasta's body. She then picked up one of his still lit up torches, and angrily tossed it towards his dead body, which instantly and unnaturally burst up in flames. SHe stood watching as the magical fire consumed his cadaver, and spat "This will do it".


	6. Chapter 6

The Faceless Void laid down, breathing heavily, still overwhelmed by the pain. He was still alive, barely, when Akasha found him. She stood over him attentively, watching him shake painfully. The Templar Assassin had left him there, thinking he had died, but in the last second, Darkterror managed to reel back in time to save himself, an ability he couldn't properly control yet. He was still badly hurt, but alive. Akasha crouched next to him, opened his mouth forcefully, and dropped a green liquid in his mouth. He drank with trouble, but his wounds seemed to get better by the second, and he finally coughed roughly, and got up to his knees.

"Please forgive me, Queen of Pain. The Templar Assassin is a very strong fighter." he pleaded.

Back on her feet, she watched at him from above, trying to suppress the anger of the failed attack. She spat "You are forgiven. I know you tried. Ultimately, our assault was mistimed." she put her hand on his head, and pushed him down "Next time we will beat them. We took out two of them, they took out two of us. But they have one wounded they might not be able to save. We need to be their shadows."

He looked up and asked "Two? I had the feeling the Skeleton King had crumbled to the Ursine Warrior".

She smilled and replied "Yes, he crumbled. But we both know he's not as easy to take down. Unlike you. You failed me, and I've forgiven you. I expect you to show gratitude, not to doubt my words!"

The Faceless Void dropped down quickly and stuck out a long, slimy and disgusting purple tongue, which licked the boots of the Queen of Pain. She stood there, arms crossed, enjoying herself. There was some rumours about how Akasha could control nearly anyone around her, and the entire army (and most of the litenauts, as well) would go down on their knees if she asked: Darkterror was no exception, despite the absurd powers he was attributed. She wasn't fond of it in public, but tales were passed around about her intimate practices. It was well known that it was how she came into this world, as the personal sexual torturer of a king, who was a famous hedonist. His corpse was found one day, horrifically abused in ways most people could only have nightmares from. While immune from this supposed aura of submission, Nesajj was aware and made her basically the second in command of the Dire Legion, confident it would translate that domination into leadership.

She kicked the terror away and demanded "Stand up!" to which he obliged. "We should find Osterion and be on our way. We need to strike quickly, or the Crystal Maiden would have recovered"

"Yes, Queen of Pain".

King Osterion was sitting on a rock, not far away, the sword buried in the ground, and while he couldn't express emotions, the skeleton seemed disappointed with his defeat. He raised his head to meet the abomination and the succubus. Unlike Darkterror, Osterion was immune to Akasha's powers, but he still respected her ruthlessness.

"Osterion, I'm pretty disappointed in you. I thought you could handle that bear."

"I thought you could handle the Templar"

There was a moment of uncomfortable silence, while Darkterror crouched somewhat afraid, like an animal who was being punished, and asked "Did you see where were they headed, Skeleton King?"

The skeleton rose to his feet and the crunching of the articulations echoed in the silence of the forest. He produced her sword, still stained with the blood of the Ursine warrior, and he laughed lowly "This will lead us to them. We need to move fast though, if we want to press the advantage."

The Succubus smiled and called up "Darkterror! Take the point. Search for the trail. We will follow you. This is not over yet!"

* * *

Not far away, the Templar Assassin and the Ursine Warrior raced through the woods to the Valley of Tears, the section of the forest that housed the Silverglade Lake, an enormous water deposit that was the biggest source of water for the Legion. The Morphling was expected to be attracted to its element, so the lake seemed the obvious choice. Lanaya could only hope that was right. Uflsaar carried Rylai on his back, tied safely. She seemed to be coming to her senses, and, as a magic user herself, they hoped she could wake up soon and determine the grade of her wound, something both Uflsaar and Lanaya could only speculate on.

Both were silent, but were acutely aware of their surroundings. There was a lot more to the forest than just the local - ocassionally, really dangerous - fauna and flora - also, and more often, really dangerous -, but Uflsaar had assured Lanaya than, if anything, the forest would plot to their favour. Uflsaar was one of the forest protectors who had joined the Radiant Forces for the sake of his home, so she felt easier to herself as she tried not to lose too much ground to his bigger and faster ally.

"Wait! WAIT!"

Uflsaar took a few seconds to come to a halt as he heard Rylai's voice. She was struggling with the ropes that held her tight to his body, so he stood upright, which allowed her to slide down to her feet, though on landing she held her stomach, where Lion had wounded her.

Lanaya got close and held her carefully, and she smiled "I'm back! What happened? All I can remember is the battle starting and that cursed Demon Witch hitting me! Where is Tiny? And Rhasta?".

Lanaya's masked face didn't show any hint of emotion, but Uflsaar put his enormous pawn on her shoulder and said slowly "Rhasta is dead, Rylai. We don't know if Tiny will rise again either."

Dropping her hood down, letting her magnificient blonde hair flow with the slight wind, she covered her eyes. Rylai was used to lose troops, but losing friends was different. Still, she resisted the urge to cry, but the hollow feeling on her chest was crushing and made it difficult to breathe properly. She whispered, just audibly enough to be heard "We all knew at some point it would hit us, right?"

"It's surprising it took us so long, Rylai. How many years has this battle been going?" asked, somewhat angered, Lanaya "And how long will it go still? Is this Morphling some sort of trump card that will finally allow us to overcome this ridiculous struggle?". Lanaya's tone was growing in intensity, but she finally stopped and blinked for a few seconds, then she pulled down her mask, and began to breathe slowly, as if to calm herself. Neither Uflsaar or Rylai had ever seen her without it, and Rylai was surprised by how well she took care of it, despite being, more or less, a front line attacker, unlike her or her sister Lina. She had no visible scars on her face, but her pink complexion made her purple lips stand out badly. She looked, somehow, like a life-sized puppet, a beautiful one, but something about her was off.

She was startled when she noticed Lanaya looking directly at her. She pulled up her mask, without pulling her sight. Rylai felt uncomfortable, and obviously something bothered Lanaya enough to do that to a fellow fighter, and more important, to a friend. She walked at her, trying to shake off the fear she would snap, and held her tightly. Lanaya's hands exploded into burst of purple energy and Rylai could feel her shaking, but she did not let go.

Perhaps the cold embrace of the Crystal Maiden wasn't everyone's ideal of human warmth, but for Lanaya, it was a conduit of emotions, and she burst into tears. She silently wept for a few minutes, remembering how she felt for all the people she held dear during the war, from her childhood until now. How long had she closed down her emotions? Was her sadistic way of fighting a way to drain? Was it the way of the Templar she had been taught?

Uflsaar stood silent. He wasn't used to this - the ursine people weren't particulary sentimental, and death was thought to be either a reward if in battle, or a shame if of old age - but he had seen it amongst most humanoid races countless times. It was rare on elves such as Lanaya, but it had happen. He had learned just to respect their pain and not to challenge it, as them fought with their hearts, not only with their resolve. Still, it was uncomfortable to him, and he preferred to stay away from such displays.

Rylai took care of her own wound, assuring them it wasn't as bad as they thought, but Uflsaar insisted in carrying her, thinking her strength should be reserved in case they needed her powers in battle, and Lanaya took the lead, already sensing a great mystery to be uncovered. It had been a while since she felt the knowledge rush that had kept her alive during her early years, and, somewhat excited, she began to run towards it.

**The Morphling was close at hand.**


	7. Chapter 7

Silverglade Lake was a beautiful and haunting place to behold. The gigantic lake was eerily calm, and the water was still to the point of looking like a way too realistic painting. It was long rumored to be home to magnificent beasts, but the forest dweller respected the lake to an almost religious fascination and any kind of exploration to the depths of the mass of water was strictly forbidden. While the seas of this world were wild, unpredictable and home to many kinds of creatures and races, the lake was a crystalline reservoir of peace, and some unspoken agreement had come after the great invasion a few decades prior to the war exploding that none of the forces would meet here.

Until today.

Ulfsaar rested at last at the border of the lake, and drank quietly, looking strangely feral for the first time that night, and laid down to gather some of his strength, while Lanaya helped Rylai off his back. The trio wasn't sure what to do now, except waiting for the arrival of the Morphling. The Legion forces were aware Akasha was still at loose, probably biding her time to strike again. The Ursine warrior had several scars on his body, but he didn't seemed bothered by any kind of pain, while Lanaya was still pretty much healthy. Rylai seemed calm as well, so the trio sat down and tried to keep their cool.

"Do you know anything of the Morphling, Ulfsaar?"

The powerful bear rose his head and spoke with a deep, deliberate voice "Only what tales are told of the elementals, Crystal Maiden. They are vastly powerful beings, sentient only to a certain extent, and need a master to serve. Otherwise they just wander the planes, looking for a sense to their existence. The Morphling is a water elemental, an erratic force of nature, long ago expelled from its home planet. There are stories of entire armies decimated by copies of themselves, but no one really knows what its real powers are. I wouldn't be surprised of anything coming from such a legendary warrior though... " he lowered his head again and rested "... so expect the unexpected."

Rylai for a second seemed lost on her thoughts, and rose to her feet quickly, looking up.

"Well, guess we won't have to expect that unexpected for long."

The trio of lieutenants looked up and managed to watch a majestic, long tailed falling star, still far from the ground, falling down directly towards them. Lanaya smiled, thinking about how they had managed to reach the Morphling, at last, before Akasha could assault them again. Rylai laughed... but then Ulfsaar growled "LOOK OUT!"

There was no time to prepare. An enormous fireball appeared out of nowhere, directed at the Ursine Warrior, but just as he prepared to duck out of the way, a wicked mace found his face, locking him down and leaving him unable to move, leaving him open to receive the fireball directly at his chest, stunning him and scorching his bright hairs. Lanaya managed to catch a glimpse of the attacker, and it was Darkterror, the abomination she thought she had slayed a few hours before. She cursed herself, for not taking the time to finish him off.

With a skillful arm movement, she raised her psionic veil,and jumped in front of both Rylai and the stunned Ulfsaar, and shoot down the Faceless Void with a powerful psionic blade, having just enough time to direct the brunt of the psionic charge to the place where the surprisingly nimble Skeleton King had thrown his scimitar, repelling the attack, and countering quickly, stunning the monster and pushing him back a few steps, giving Ulfsaar time to recover.

However, it was all in vain, even with Rylai freezing the pair with a powerful ice blast, and keeping the two warriors from countering, as Akasha suddenly appeared in front of them, and after smiling widely, she drew air before shouting an enormous sonic blast at the three Legion warriors, breaking down Lanaya's psionic blade and throwing them all at the river.

And finally, as the coup-de-grace, Darkterror uttered some words in some undecipherable language, and a dark, purple dome rose from the ground, the fabled Time Sphere trapped the Ursine Warrior and the Templar Assassin in suspended animation, leaving only the Crystal Maiden safe from the curse of stopped time. Lanaya and Ulfsaar were at Darkterror's mercy, who ran at frightening speed at the pair, and Ryali was no match for the combined might of the three evil opponents.

Still, it was a sacrifice worth it.

She sang her incantations, successfully freezing the Faceless Void in place as he entered the cursed sphere, and then began to move her staff in wide circles over her head. Akasha knew what was coming, but her sonic blast had left her exhausted and couldn't reach her in time to stop her from unleashing a powerful ice storm in place, hitting the three Dire attackers with enormous, deadly sharp ice shards, cutting and piercing Akasha and Darkterror, and breaking shards of bone from Osterion.

"You won't get away with this, Akasha!" She yelled, smiling as she bought time and tried to break Darkterror's concentration to make his incantations over the sphere vanish.

"STOP IT YOU CRYSTAL MAIDEN"

As he shouted it, a second fireball was fired from Osterion's knuckle, that hit Rylai squarely on the stomach, causing her to lose control over the storm, and caused her to double in pain. Her work, though was successful, as the sphere faded away in the confusion. Enraged, the Faceless Void transported at her direction, and rose his hand to strike.

"NOOOOO!" but screaming was the only thing she could do, as Lanaya witnessed Darkterror hitting the Crystal Maiden in her middle section, breaking her in two, and ripping her torso apart from her legs, and both parts disappearing into the lake. Akasha laughed, but Ulfsaar was already on his way to attack her, and managed to paint three deep scars into her stomach, just as she managed to teleport away, leaving Osterion to deal with the enraged bear.

Darkterror turned around to watch the out of control Templar, who was breathing heavily, and had already formed her blades and shield, and could tell was out of her mind. He assumed his fighting position, but the Templar disappeared in plain sight, and he felt the sharp sting of the psionic blade on his back, as Lanaya had teleported using her magical dagger just behind him to take him off guard. She continued her attack, but Darkterror was learning and could evade most attacks, and block others with his mace of ages.

Lanaya wasn't really thinking straight. Hatred had invaded her mind, and she couldn't think of anything else but killing the wretched monster that had killed her friend. She recklessly shot blades of energy, but she couldn't hit him properly. Still, on her rage, she didn't care. She would cripple him, and, this time, utterly destroy him, until nothing was left.

At the same time, Ulfsaar was gaining the upper hand against Osterion, and Akasha was out of battle, holding her badly wounded stomach while leaning against a tree. She sat down, trying to hold the blood. She was a worshipper of pain, but fear of death made this anything but a delight. She tried to get to her feet, cursing that moment of pity she had to save a slave and not saving that salve to heal herself. "Nesajj, if you plan to do anything with that secret weapon of yours, this is the moment" she thought, not sure of the Chaos Knight would be aware of her predicament. She was in pain, but she was also mad, frustrated, that this had become such a struggle.

"Do you really think I can control Kaeldr, succubus? The ageless? The only thing older than myself?"

The deep, frightening voice of Nesajj resonated inside her head. It was taunting her, she knew, and it made her a bit more frustrated. She gritted her teeth, as blood ran out her mouth, and she licked it. Beauty in pain, that was her belief. No reason to stop fighting. She produced and gripped her dagger, and walked heavily towards the disaster scene that the gladiators fight represented. Osterion was being overwhelmed, and the confusion that was the battle between the Faceless Void and the Templar Assassin was too hard to appraise. She had to do something, though, she thought, so she prepared to bury a dagger into the Ursine warrior's neck. It probably wouldn't do anything, but Osterion was a master of taking advantages of small distractions.

Silverglade Lake was a fresh place, she thought. Almost cool. Perhaps it was the Crystal Maiden's storm that left the place colder than normal, but it still felt strange. She watched the falling star about to fall. This wasn't the best way to receive it, and the outcome would be unpredictable at best.

A sharp lighting of pain made her double down again. This was irritating. However, the cold made her feel slightly better, except when she realized this wasn't because of Rylai's ice storm or the freshness of the forest. It was much colder than anything the Crystal Maiden could summon, as the ageless trees began to croak, as patches of ice appeared in the battlefield.

"Kaeldr?" she asked herself, then a explosion of cold hit her, as well as the four other warriors. The Ancient Apparition that was the projected image of Kaeldr didn't descend as the Morphling was about to do, neither did he manifested. He just sort of appeared, in the middle of the battlefield.

The voice made the entire forest tremble, and Lanaya couldn't believe her eyes as the figure made her intentions known "YOU RADIANT FORCES STAND IN THE WAY OF OBLIVION"

Osterion started to laugh maniacally, as he rose to his feet and tried to locate the bear to take advantage of the distraction, but he realized he couldn't see properly as the air was covered by a strong white curtain of ice. He could hear the bear growling, but he had lost track of the beast, or everyone else for that matter.

Ulfsaar, however, recognized the timing, and ran at the white, ice-formed figure, but he was greeted by ice trapping his feet, and immobilizing him. "YOU WILL NOT STOP MY DESIGNS. CEASING EXISTENCE WILL BE MY DOING"

Lanaya, still on a fit of rage, had found Darkterror stunned by the ice hit, and had taken him down, and dragged him ashore, stomping on his face a few times, breaking his teeth and leaving him, once again, on the brink of death. She couldn't kill him now, not with this new enemy threatening the Morphling's arrival, so she whispered at him "I will break you later, abomination", and, shield up, teleported just in front of the figure, but as she appeared, the figure's voice thundered in her head "DO NOT BE RIDICULOUS, TEMPLAR ASSASSIN. YOU ARE BUT A MINOR NUISANCE TO ME." and her entire psionic veil she used a shield was covered in ice, effectively blinding her. Her only choice was to drop it, and just when she did, she felt a frozen, impossibly cold hand grasping her throat. The terror made her entire body shake, as Kaeldr looked at her, deep into her eyes.

"YOU ARE NOTHING AND YOU WILL JOIN THE NOTHING. YOU WILL HAVE THE PRIVILEGE OF BEING PART OF THE NOTHING SHORTLY BEFORE I END IT ALL"

The horror had crept into her mind and she began to scream, out of her mind, and tears of desperation rolled down her cheeks, as her screaming wore hoarse as her throat was being frozen. She had trouble breathing, and the only thing that kept her from dying was the desperate yelling and crying that kept her alive. Still she couldn't take her eyes away from Kaeldr, the terror freezing her sight as well as her neck.

Then it happened.

The falling boulder of ice that was the falling star hit the lake, and a tsunami hit the warriors,sweeping everyone except the Ancient Apparition and the Templar Assassin away. Akasha managed to evade it teleporting to the top of the highest tree she could find, and was the first one to realize that, from the center of the lake, a figure, a vaguely humanoid creature was rising.

The creature then disappeared, and, like a giant fish that runs just below the surface of the water, a splashing current ran towards them. It rose again, and it looked at them. Entirely made of moving water, the Morphling had arrived. It moved erratically, from side to side, changing from the humanoid form into anything he located, a tree, a rock, Kaeldr's apparition - entirely with Lanaya's hanging from his arm, Ulfsaar, the wounded Darkterror.

Then, without any notice, it attacked, throwing a stone hard column of water at Kaeldr, throwing him back, and making him drop the nearly dead Lanaya to the ground, while the apparition crashed against a tree, not showing any kind of damage, but slightly stunned.

Darkterror was holding his head, trying to make sense of the water elemental in front of him. Alien as he was from this world, most things seemed dangerous to him, and he resolved the best thing was to attack. Gathering strength, he sent a mighty attack, in a powerful arc to hit the elemental on its head, succeeding and letting an inhuman cry of pain from the Morphling, who responded with another column of water at the Faceless Void.

When he recovered his senses, he looked up to locate his enemy, but all he found was... himself. A blue version of himself, an exact copy, was looking at him attentively. Ripples of movement across its skin and the color was the only difference, even the broken teeth were present. Darkterror had never felt fear, but he realized he was feeling something that was much like it.

He did not have enough time to think about it, as with his own speed and strength, the copy smashed his head three times with its mace, dropping him down to the floor. He tried to pull back in time to keep himself from being crippled, but the mace hit him once more and he fell out of his senses. Not dead but definitely dying, the Faceless Void was, once again, down for the battle. He could only pray that in her mercy and as her favorite slave, the Queen of Pain would once again save him. But not much hope could be hold on that thought as he faded away.

The ancient apparition floated towards the water elemental, but the Morphling, using Darkterror's powers, slid in and hit the ice abomination several times, breaking pieces of the image. Kaledr, irritated, froze the elemental in place, but the Morphling simply broke the ice in pieces by turning into his real form. He then threw a final column of water, breaking the ice apparition into a million pieces, as the voice thundered again "SO WE MEET AGAIN, ELEMENTAL. WE WILL FACE OFF AGAIN AND I WILL BANISH YOU LIKE I DID AEONS AGO!".

Not far from there, and locked in a deadly embrace , his sword buried deep into his enemy's gut, Osterion wasn't aware of the scene. His shield broken, his left arm ripped from his body, and both his legs broken, he twisted his sword in a final effort to kill Ulfsaar finally and take him down with him. Ulfsaar had lost an eye to the Skeleton King and was quickly losing strength, but his only chance was to break him to pieces, as he tried to pry the skull open.

"You will DIE tonight, Ulfsaar! I WILL TAKE YOU WITH ME!" he growled as he tried to move his sword to the side, trying to rip the muscle and break the beast in two, but the words were the last he screamed, as Ulfsaar broke away his jaw with a mighty slash. The now silent Skeleton King let go of his sword, and punched the beast solidly in the face, making him stagger, but the bear replied with a mighty, animal roar, and his eyes and claws started to glow in a savage red glow, then the Ursine Warrior charged at the remnants of the Skeleton King, slashing in blind fury, breaking the bones to pieces, sending it to oblivion.

Akasha watched the scene, powerless to intervene, and sighed audibly. She then disappeared into the night, hoping the Chaos Knight had better ideas to deal with this new threat.


	8. Chapter 8

Lanaya woke up from her nightmare finding Uflsaar uncharacteristically licking at her neck. He had thawed the ice that kept her from breathing, saving her from a certain death. He was covered in blood, and was visibly in pain, laying on the ground as he brought her to life. The elemental she had briefly seen was now moving from side to side around them both, playfully making sounds like an excited bird.

She sat upright and looked around incredulous. The lake had calmed down again, but the entire valley was drenched. Uflsaar laughed lowly, and said "It's over, Templar. It's time to go home."

She asked "What happened?" but her words were cut short as the Morphling appeared in her sight, and took on her own form. She looked at it, being a long time sinceshe had seen her own reflexion, and the elemental mimicked her every movement. She had a hard time this mischievus, childlike behaviour was the all-powerful creature three of the most powerful warriors of the Radiant had given their lives to reach, but Uflsaar assured her.

"He single handledly saved us, Templar. Do not doubt it."

She looked again at her reflection, and the water once again changed into the torrent of humanoid water. The Morphling ran in circles around them, and she laid down in the wet grass, spending a few seconds to let the thoughts settle in. Rylai, Rhasta and Tiny were gone, but their sacrifice wouldn't be in vain.

The memory of the terror she felt when she confronted Kaeldr was a blur, a difficult to remember piece of pure horror, but it was gone. Somehow, the anger had subdued, and she realized that the deaths of her companions was something worth remembering, their sacrifice for the greater good reminded her that the real reason they were fighting was to save what was worth dying for, a world teeming with life. The beautiful valley she was in, the wondrous star studded night, and the marvelous beast that saved her were all part of this world. Revenge was the bonus, but she was fighting for the side of good.

She remembered the words of the Shadow Shaman, whenever she stressed her opinion. _"This is everyone's war, Lanaya. Keep that in mind. Rage and revenge only leads you to perdition. Do not get carried away on your personal vendetta"_

Uflsaar laid sleeping, obviously exhausted. The Morphling had taken his form, and laid on his side, an identical copy, which made the bear snoring sound with echo. She smiled at the scene, the sound made Uflsaar's (and the Morphlin's) ears move slightly. She crawled closer to the bear, and took confort ont he warm, soft hairy back of the warrior, and calmed herself. The battle wasn't over, but, somehow, she felt it had come closer to a better end.


End file.
